Podcast Episodes

One important way to test software is based on the way it’s supposed to work, verifying conformance to specified behavior from user stories and requirements, and validating that the software solves the users’ and customers’ problems.  This is often called black-box testing. However, another way to test software is based on the way it’s built, which is the complementary concept of white-box testing. We measure completeness of black-box testing through coverage of requirements, user stories, risks, personas, and more, and we measure completeness of white-box through code coverage. In this One Key Idea session, Rex will explain the meat-and-potatoes of code coverage, statement coverage and branch coverage, and demonstrate these concepts with a free tool, gcov. Technical and non-technical testers alike will walk away with a clearer understanding of this critical concept.

Archimedes once wrote, “Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I will move the world.” In Agile, the place to stand is testing, and the lever is test automation. Are you using all the leverage that lever gives you? Most organizations are missing some tricks, and not getting the full value of test automation. In this webinar, Rex will survey all the different ways you can—and should—take advantage of test automation as an Agile tester. The best news: Many of these forms of automation involve tools that won’t cost you a dime! Spend some time learning about some high-ROI, proven best practices to reduce failure costs and increase quality.

If you’ve been testing for any length of time, you know that the number of possible test cases is enormous if you try to test all possible combinations of inputs, configuration values, types of data, and so forth. It’s like the mythical monster, the many-headed Hydra, which would sprout two or more new heads for each head that was cut off. Two simple approaches to dealing with combinatorial explosions such as this are equivalence partitioning and boundary value analysis, but those techniques don’t check for interactions between factors. A reasonable, manageable way to test combinations is called pairwise testing, but to do it you’ll need a tool.  In this inaugural One Key Idea session, Rex will demonstrate the use of a free tool, ACTS, built by the US NIST and available for download worldwide. We can’t promise to turn you into Hercules, but you will definitely walk away able to slay the combinatorial Hydra.

While much of testing and test management involves rational decision-making, measuring quality and providing testing services to the team, there are realms of the test manager’s job where psychology meets politics to form psychopolitics.   In this webinar, drawn from three decades of industry experience and materials in his best-selling book Managing the Testing Process, 3^rd edition, Rex will discuss how psychology and politics can collide to make the test manager’s job…interesting. Join in the discussion after the initial presentation with your own questions and stories about testing psychology, testing politics, and plain ol’ psycho-politics!

A majority of software development organizations have adopted Agile methods, but testing in Agile projects remains a major challenge. However, some of these organizations have found practical ways to integrating testing into Agile lifecycles.  In this webinar, Rex will address challenges and opportunities associated with Agile, different ways of adapting Agile lifecycles and the testing within those lifecycles, and how Agile differs from traditional lifecycles.  We’ll examine tools and metrics for Agile projects.  We’ll address whether Agile can be used for outsourced projects.  We’ll look at different options for organizing test teams on Agile projects, and why only some of these options can work.  Rex will offer his thoughts on Agile and quality, and what skills and personalities work best in Agile projects. In this updated free webinar, Rex will discuss these points and more, giving you a better shot at Agile testing success.

At first, mobile phones were limited, clunky, dumb luxuries. Now, almost half of the world’s population carries in their pockets or purses more computing power than was involved in the Apollo program that landed men on the moon—and safely brought every one of them home. But a smart phone is not just a computer. What are the implications of always carrying a computer that is also a two-way radio and a GPS location device? Does it make you safer, or put you at risk? How is the ubiquity of mobile technologies changing the world? What are the intersections between mobile technologies, crime, fraud, privacy, security, and encryption? What are the testing and quality implications of this modern, mobile world? Join Rex for some thoughts, case studies, and suggestions about the exciting and sometimes scary world mobile technologies are bringing to us.

When we do assessments, we always try to look at process metrics. In most cases, we can find millions of dollars in process improvement opportunities. In this webinar, Rex will show you how two very simple bug metrics, calculated using only two simple facts for each bug report using simple, free spreadsheets you can get from our website, can reveal millions and millions of dollars in potential process improvements. All the more reason to track those bugs! To paraphrase Timothy Leary: Tune in, download, and drop software co

Some people use the terms “verification” and “validation” interchangeably, but there are significant differences between them. Some people disparage verification, or deny that it’s even involved in testing. However, you can’t adequately build confidence and reduce risk in the software you test without using the proper mix of both. In this webinar, Rex will clarify the meaning of these two terms, give examples, and explain why both are essential to proper software testing.

Many smart, otherwise-capable testers sabotage their own careers by committing one or more of the seven deadly sins of testing.  Are you your own worst enemy?  Come join us to discuss these seven deadly sins with Rex.  You might recognize your own behaviors, or behaviors of others on your test team.  In this updated webinar presentation, Rex gives examples of these behaviors through case studies, and tells you how to stop the behaviors and solve the problems those behaviors have created.  For sinners and non-sinners alike, Rex offers ideas on how to become a testing saint.  

Mobile apps have more users than PC apps, and people spend more time on mobile apps than on PC apps. Mobile apps have been around since the 1990s, but the real explosion in mobile apps has occurred in the last ten years. And, while time-wasters and entertainment apps abound, mission-critical and safety-critical apps exist, and so quality matters. What do we need to know about testing mobile apps? It’s more than just a smaller screen, right? In this webinar, Rex will describe the key things that mobile application testers must consider. Join us for a quick introduction to the art and science of mobile app testing.